"The care and emotional support we received was amazing"

When our 10-week-old baby boy had a temperature, my gut instinct told me something wasn’t right and we went straight to A&E. From arrival at A&E until discharge, I couldn’t fault the 7 days in Royal Glasgow Children’s hospital. Particularly ward 2C where we stayed for the first 2 days and 3C for 5 on the reeno ward and then ortho. 

This was our first experience of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Glasgow. From the nurses, Drs and consultants, play and kitchen staff to the daily cleaner every individual made our experience that little bit more comfortable during a really scary time for us. Everything was explained clearly and the emotional support we received along with the care of my 10 week old baby was amazing.

There were a number of play staff who came in daily with little toys and sensory play for our baby boy. In addition the play staff took prints of my baby's hand and feet and made us a keepsake. We were also supposed to be going to Disneyland Florida when we were in hospital and there was a Belle and Ariel dressed up doing rounds on the hospital, this was particularly amazing for our toddler who was 2 and also feeling it as his mum was not home every night. 

Special shout out to nurses Bethany and Nicola and Consultant Paul. Each of these individuals were extremely knowledgeable and took the time to address our questions and concerns. I left each conversation and the hospital  stay confident in the care our baby was receiving. Although I have named these individuals in particular I couldn’t fault any of the staff over the entire stay. Very caring, compassionate and all had a great bedside manner. 

We were told on day 3 that our son had a UTI following an ultrasound this confirmed that it had spread to the kidneys. His antibiotics were changed once the known bacteria was confirmed to one that would work for ecoli. 

This was our first experience as parents being in hospital with either of our kids and although it was extremely scary and upsetting at times I felt confident in the staff that they would help our baby. 

We had a particularly hard day where the Drs tried for many hours - approx 8 - to get a line in to our baby, he became so dehydrated and without antibiotics we ended up having to put him to sleep around 11pm to do this. This was particularly distressing but Bethany and the anaesthetist Drs put us at as much ease as possible, again talking us through exactly what would happen, how it would happen, how long it would take etc. 

I cannot fault the entire team and staff at 3C & 2C in Royal Glasgow Children’s Hospital. 

We have now been passed to the UTI/reeno team who will follow up with scans as an outpatient. We will also continue oral antibiotics at home and for the foreseeable.